Forensic analysis of Salvia divinorum using multivariate statistical procedures. Part II: association of adulterated samples to S. divinorum.
Melissa A Bodnar Willard, Victoria L Mcguffin, Ruth Waddell Smith
Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry 2012 DOI: 10.1007/s00216-011-5500-7 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Experimental study Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Population | Plant materials (Salvia divinorum, Salvia officinalis, Cannabis sativa, Nicotiana tabacum) |
| Topics | Salvia divinorum |
| Keywords | Forensic science Forensics Forensic identification Forensic analysis Criminalistics Hallucinogenic plants Psychoactive plants Salvia identification Drug identification Drug detection Illicit drug analysis Controlled substance identification Analytical chemistry Phytochemical analysis Statistical analysis Principal components analysis Pca Chemical testing Adulterant detection Complex sample analysis Botanical mixtures Plant mixture analysis |
| Citations | 5 |
| Key findings | Adulterated Salvia divinorum samples could be associated with unadulterated S. divinorum using PCA scores plots, and several statistical procedures provided additional evaluation of that association. |
Abstract
Salvia divinorum is a plant material that is of forensic interest due to the hallucinogenic nature of the active ingredient, salvinorin A. In this study, S. divinorum was extracted and spiked onto four different plant materials (S. divinorum, Salvia officinalis, Cannabis sativa, and Nicotiana tabacum) to simulate an adulterated sample that might be encountered in a forensic laboratory. The adulterated samples were extracted and analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, and the resulting total ion chromatograms were subjected to a series of pretreatment procedures that were used to minimize non-chemical sources of variance in the data set. The data were then analyzed using principal components analysis (PCA) to investigate association of the adulterated extracts to unadulterated S. divinorum. While association was possible based on visual assessment of the PCA scores plot, additional procedures including Euclidean distance measurement, hierarchical cluster analysis, Student's t tests, Wilcoxon rank-sum tests, and Pearson product moment correlation were also applied to the PCA scores to provide a statistical evaluation of the association observed. The advantages and limitations of each statistical procedure in a forensic context were compared and are presented herein.